Specific learning difficulties affect up to 20% of any population, yet there are not enough local government resources to help many of those children attain their full potential. Often parents are expected to carry the burden of paying for after school classes and therapies but those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale are totally unable to do so. Likewise they cannot pay for the psycho-didactic examination which has to be taken when a student needs to take the matriculation (bagrut) exams under special conditions because of specific learning problems. The Talia Trusts aims to be flexible in order to answer needs as they arise so projects may change from year to year.
S’dot HaNegev’s Circles of Strength project grew out of the Talia Trust’s successful pre-school preparation week for young children from settlements which border the Gaza Strip in August 2007. The new project’s purpose is to help those first grade children who not only have been experiencing the stress of sirens and bombing and anxiety of relocation but also have cognitive and emotional problems which affect their ability to learn as easily as their peers. Within the project that began in March 2009, the Talia Trust finances hands-on training of class teachers to identify children who need help.
Occupational therapy sessions are being financed by the Talia Trust in our ongoing project for children with specific learning difficulties from needy families in Kiryat Haim, Haifa. In many cases there is a big gap between those children and their peers and so they had given up trying. The specialists at the Kiryat Haim Learning Centre give them the confidence to proceed and succeed.
The Hadera project, which is now in its fifth year, involves psycho-didactic testing prior to the bagrut matriculation exam. These children attend a local high school whose stated aim is to give a second chance in small classes. A majority of the children in the school have specific learning difficulties and come from very disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Trust has helped several individual children whose school counselors have contacted us directly. After receiving the appropriate proof from educational psychologists and social workers, the Talia Trust decides to what extent the child can be helped in that academic year.